Failing the sub-postmasters

Four wrongly accused post-masters may well have been honoured with OBEs in the New Years honours list but the failure to bring the matter to a conclusion by paying out sufficient compensation remains extant.

The Mirror reports that almost three quarters of the cash set aside to compensate postmasters hasn't been paid out.

The paper says that a damning report has called on the Post Office to be kicked out of the process to put the Horizon IT scandal right, with just £499million of the £1.8billion assigned for payouts to victims having been paid out, meaning 72% is unspent:

MPs have voiced their outrage after it emerged Post Office bosses had paid £136million in legal fees. The cross-party Commons Business and Trade Committee says there must be fines if compensation targets are not met.

Alarming data shows that 14% of postmasters who applied before the original 2020 deadline have still not settled their claims. Committee chairman Liam Byrne said: "Payments are so slow that people are dying before they get justice. But the lawyers are walking away with millions. This is quite simply, wrong, wrong, wrong."

It comes after four former postmasters - Lee Castleton, Seema Misra, Chris Head and Jo Hamilton - were awarded OBEs in the New Year Honours list acknowledging their years-long fight for justice. They vowed to continue fighting for justice.

In its report, published today(WED) the committee demanded legally-binding timeframes for compensation to be paid. If these are not met, victims should be awarded additional payments, MPs agreed.

The document said schemes are "so poorly designed that the application process is akin to a second trial for victims”. It also pointed to high admin costs.

So far, it found, Post Office Ltd has spent £136 million on Herbert Smith Freehills, the external legal firm for the HSS and Overturned Convictions scheme. This is equivalent to 44% of the actual sums paid out to victims so far.

Of that, £67million was costs to administer the Horizon Shortfall Scheme. But in spite of this victims have been offered no legal advice in submitting their claims.

Mr Byrne said a "practical, common-sense plan" is needed to reboot the redress system. He said: “Victims should have upfront legal advice to help make sure they get what’s fair.

"We need hard deadlines for government lawyers to approve the claims with financial penalties for taking too long. Crucially, we need the Post Office, which caused this scandal in the first place, taken out of the picture.”

There were 3,300 victims, many of whom lost their livelihoods and reputations in the scandal. After all this time isn't it time that this was brought to a proper conclusion?